Ebola Expert To CNN: We Can’t Ban Flights From Liberia Because Of Slavery

"I mean, we in America, how dare we turn our backs on Liberia given the fact that this is a country that was founded in the 1820s, 1830s because of American slavery."

On Anderson Cooper 360 Thursday, Ebola expert David Quammen argued that America had a “responsibility” to allow people from Liberia to fly into the country because of the legacy of American slavery.

Quammen, author of Ebola and Spillover, has been making the rounds on news outlets over the last few weeks as an expert on the history of Ebola. Thursday, Quammen offered Cooper his opinion on the proper American response to the epidemic:

Quammen: You can’t isolate neighborhoods, you can’t isolate nations. It doesn’t work. And people talk about, "Well, we shouldn’t allow any flights from Liberia." I mean, we in America, how dare we turn our backs on Liberia given the fact that this is a country that was founded in the 1820s, 1830s because of American slavery. We have a responsibility to stay connected to them and help them see this through.